Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/735

 LUTHER 729 pressive. The last related to death, eternity, and the recognition of friends in heaven. On Feb. 17 he was seized with a painful pres- sure at the breast, and after fervent prayer and thrice repeating to his friends the words, " Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit ; thou hast redeemed me, thou faithful God ! " he quietly died with folded hands, between 2 and 3 o'clock of the following morning. His remains were removed in solemn proces- sion to Wittenberg, and deposited in the castle church near the pulpit. Bugenhagen and Me- lanchthon preached the funeral orations and gave utterance to the universal grief of Protes- tant Germany over the departure of the Elijah of the reformation. Luther's greatness is not that of a polished work of art, but of a lofty and rugged alpine mountain. Whatever he said and did, he said and did with all his might. His character is easily understood. Through- out his whole life he was an open-hearted, honest German. Dissimulation and cowardice were alike unknown to him. His virtues and faults lie on the surface, and we have nowhere to search for any secret or double motive in his conduct. He is the most faithful and origi- nal type of the German national character both in its strength and weakness. He was em- phatically a man of the people, and to this day no other name carries such weight and author- ity with the masses in Protestant Germany, which reveres and loves him far more than Boniface, " the apostle of Germany." He gave to his countrymen in their native tongue, what no one did before or since, the first readable Bible and catechism, which have retained their place in church and school to this day. He had an extraordinary faculty of expressing the deepest thoughts in the plainest and most pop- ular language, and many of his sayings have passed into proverbs. As a scholar and scien- tific divine he was inferior to Melanchthon, and not to be compared with Calvin. He was no systematic thinker and logical reasoner, and his writings abound in paradoxes, inconsisten- cies, and contradictions. He always spoke out his first impressions and momentary convic- tions from the fulness of his mind and heart, regardless of consequences. Nor was he an organizing legislator and strict disciplinarian like Calvin. He contented himself with a ref- ormation of the fundamental articles of faith, hoping that it would by its own force work out a reformation of conduct and public morals. He left the government of the church in the hands of the princes, who assumed and exer- cised the episcopal power. Some of his pri- vate habits, his love for wine and beer, his joviality and drollery, would have been regard- ed by the Geneva reformer as inconsistent with true Christian sanctity. Luther never acquired a control over his violent temper and fierce passions. His wrath discharged itself in thun- der and lightning; and in his controversial works against the Roman Catholics, the Sac- ramentarians, Henry VIII. of England, and Erasmus, he indulges often in rude and vulgar invectives which no writer of the present day could use without losing the reputation of a gentleman. But we must take into account his want of refined training, the character of his age, and the rough character of the work he had to perform. To use his own graphic lan- guage, he was " rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether warlike, born to fight innumerable devils and monsters, to remove stumps and stones, to cut down thistles and thorns, and to clear the wild woods." And then it should always be remembered that beneath the strong armor of controversy Luther had a genial, kind, and generous heart. He never meant more than he said, and knew no revenge. A lion in public life, he was a lamb at home. He was eminently social in his disposition, a great lover of poetry and music, an affectionate husband and father. He liked to play with his chil- dren, and to gather with them in childlike joy around the Christmas tree. In his letters to his wife and friends he lays open his whole heart, and gives free vent to his native wit, harmless humor, and childlike playfulness and drollery. His " Table Talk," though by no means all genuine, is one of the most interest- ing and entertaining of books, a singular mix- ture of the wildest paradoxes, conceits, super T stitions, and freaks of fancy, with good sense, sound views, and excellent advice. Like most men of genuine humor, Luther was serious at bottom, and often subject to mental gloom and melancholy, especially during his monastic life and his latter years. "The basis of his life," says Carlyle, "was sadness, earnestness. In his latter days, after all triumphs and vic- tories, he expresses himself heartily weary of living; he considers that God alone can and will regulate the course things are taking, and that perhaps the day of judgment is not far. As for him, he longs for one thing: that God would release him from his labor and let him depart and be at rest. Thej understand little of the man who cite this in discredit of him ! I will call this Luther a true great man ; great in intellect, in courage, affection, and in- tegrity ; one of our most lovable and precious men. ... A right spiritual hero and prophet ; once more a true son of nature and fact, for whom these centuries, and many that are to come yet, will be thankful to heaven." The controlling element in Luther's character and the motive power of all his writings and ac- tions was his piety, his strong faith in God and unbounded enthusiasm for the gospel. He was emphatically a man of prayer, and lived in the Scriptures as few men ever did. In the doc- trine of the church and the sacraments, and in matters of worship, outward organization, and usages, he adhered much more closely to the traditions of the Roman Catholic system than either Zwingli or Calvin ; but in what consti- tutes the essence of Protestantism he was as decided as any of his fellow reformers. The absolute supremacy of God's word, and justifi-